1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disposable restraint system; and more particularly to a disposable system adapted for use when restraining the hands and/or feet of a person such as a prisoner detained by law enforcement personnel.
2. Description of Related Art
Pursuant to their lawful duties, law enforcement, military, and security personnel are routinely confronted with the need to detain and physically restrain certain persons. Security measures are taken during the detention for the sake of safety and order; at a minimum, the detainee's wrists are normally secured in handcuffs. In some instances, the detainee's ankles are also secured.
Conventional metal handcuffs and leg irons or chains have long been used for these security functions, but they suffer from a number of detriments that are especially apparent when a large number of persons are arrested or otherwise must be detained during a short period of time.
Such situations may arise during riot control or other law enforcement situations, or military operations, wherein multiple suspects must be restrained, often in a short period of time. In connection with the operation of jails and prisons, it is sometimes necessary to restrain large numbers of inmates during disorders or to move them within a facility. Such facilities are also required to have contingency plans for dealing with large scale emergencies or disasters that require evacuating a large number of people housed in the facility or portion thereof. An emergency such as a fire, flood, tornado, or the like, may occasion the need to rapidly place a large number in restraints so they can be safely yet securely moved. In many instances, the appropriate restraint may include both handcuffing each individual and securing a number of persons together. Such a practice is often denoted as gang chaining.
Conventional metal handcuffs are expensive, heavy, and cumbersome to operate. A key is required for their removal. Typically, it is not feasible for an individual patrol officer to carry enough sets of handcuffs to cope with all foreseeable operational situations.
Conventional handcuffs also present logistical difficulties. Prisoners are commonly handcuffed when they are transported in a vehicle from one location to another. For example, custody is frequently transferred from one authority to another, as when a prisoner is transferred after being convicted from a county jail to a state prison. In such circumstances, handcuffs applied at the first facility must be removed after arrival at the second facility. The specific key needed to unlock the handcuffs must be available at the destination, and the handcuffs must be returned to the original owner for reuse. A comparable problem can arise during mass arrests, in which the officer who initially applies the handcuffs to a given suspect is not present later when the handcuffs are to be removed after the suspect has been transported to a jail or other such facility, or even to a new holding location.
The use of disposable handcuffs has been proposed to address some of the foregoing practical and logistical problems. Many forms of disposable handcuffs are based on the technology of cable ties. These devices were originally developed to secure plural electrical wires or similarly shaped items disposed along a common path into an orderly bundle, which can either be freestanding or attached to a support, such as a building structural element.
Generally stated, cable ties are made of plastic or polymeric materials and comprise a strap, cord, or band having a free end that depends from a locking head. A cable tie is installed by encircling the free end around the wires to be bundled (and optionally, a building structural element as well). Then the free end is inserted through an aperture in the locking head. The locking head and aperture include a mechanism that cooperatively engages the strap unidirectionally and irreversibly, meaning that once the free end is inserted a given distance into the aperture, it cannot be withdrawn. The free end is drawn up enough to tighten the encircling band to adequately secure the bundle. The cable tie can be removed, but only by cutting the band.
A similar structure can also be applied to the wrists or ankles of a detainee, thereby serving as a handcuff mechanism. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,254 to Geisinger. Because cable ties are relatively inexpensive, widely available, and can be removed by cutting them using conventional hand tools without the need for any special tool or key, some of the foregoing problems of traditional metal handcuffs are overcome.
However, it has been found that a conventional cable tie employed as a handcuff by forming it into a single loop or a single twisted loop encircling both wrists of a detainee suffers from significant problems. To be effective, handcuffs must be applied tightly enough to prevent a detainee from wriggling free. Yet society demands that restraint devices not be applied so tightly that they cut into the skin, impair circulation or nerve function, or otherwise cause internal or external injury to the detainee. In practice, it has been difficult to reliably achieve this balance with single-strap handcuffs.
A form of handcuff that employs a cable tie-like single strap in a different configuration is provided by U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,404 to Stanchin, which is incorporated herein in the entirety by reference thereto. FIG. 1 depicts an exemplary handcuff of the type disclosed by the Stanchin patent. This handcuff can be assembled by first inserting the free end of the strap into the locking head to form a single loop, then slipping the loop through a ring to form two adjacent sub-loops. The FIG. 1 handcuff is applied by first placing one of the detainee's wrists in each of the sub-loops. It is then secured by pulling the free end through the locking head to simultaneously tighten these loops around the detainee's wrists. The FIG. 1 configuration thus avoids the need for a single loop of the strap to encircle both wrists of a detainee.
Another form of disposable handcuff avoiding a single loop is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,159,728 to Bingold. This handcuff includes a central locking head having two distinct apertures and two separate straps extending from the head. In use, each strap is irreversibly inserted into one of the apertures, thereby forming two separate loops in which a detainee's wrists are respectively placed. While this handcuff permits the two loops to be individually adjustable, somewhat alleviating the problem of properly applying the handcuff, it requires molding a head that is more intricate and complex than that used in a conventional cable tie. In addition, securing a detainee in the Bingold handcuff requires two operations, as each wrist must be secured independently. The resulting extra time and complexity is detrimental in many situations, e.g. one in which a subject actively resists his apprehension or the arresting officer must deal rapidly with multiple persons to be detained.
Furthermore, it has been found in field use that conventional disposable handcuffs, including those of the types disclosed by the foregoing patents, may be defeated by a determined detainee. By contorting their arms or wrists, detainees in some instances are able to exert sufficient force on the strap portion to cause the locking head mechanism to fail, thereby permitting the strap to be withdrawn partly or completely, so that the detainee would no longer be restrained. The resulting danger to both law enforcement personnel and the general public is clear.
A number of disclosures in the cable tie art are directed to improving the strength of engagement between the strap portion and the locking head in order to increase resistance to inadvertent withdrawal of the strap. Representative disclosures include those of U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,654 to Caveney et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,251 to Fortsch; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,421 to Wells. However, these improvements have not found application in a practical handcuff system.
Consequently, there remains a need for a disposable handcuff that is inexpensive to construct, light in weight, and readily and securely applied to a detainee, while not posing any unacceptable risk to the detainee.